


Do Androids Dream Of Love

by Lyumia



Series: Rare Pair Week 2k18 [5]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 18:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13746777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyumia/pseuds/Lyumia
Summary: Rufus gets a shiny new toy to watch him after his ties to AVALANCHE are discovered . He wonders the what the Android is capable of feeling after an incident.Day Five: Domestic Life





	Do Androids Dream Of Love

The SOLDIER androids were magnificent constructs of synthetic parts, mako, and mystery. They behaved and moved gracefully on all accounts like the strongest model Seraph-00, capable of formulating eloquent responses to philosophical questions like G-1, or as unshakable in both morals and battle like model A-2. No one knew how they developed these traits, and the AI seemed to develop on their own with little to no explanation. So when a SOLDIER android was placed on the loveseat in the living room of his penthouse Rufus was confused.

“This is yours.” Tseng explained in a flat voice, guesting to the limp robot boy whose head was bent to the side in an unnerving manner. “When it gets low on power you are to call the number written on the inside cover of the manual. Talk to it regularly and perform maintenance on it.” He bent over slightly to lay a thick manual down on the coffee table that was easily thicker than an encyclopedia. “Consider it a constructive exercise.” 

Tseng left the room without another word, and Rufus was half tempted to follow him but the weight of the anklet reminded him that he couldn't. 

The Android dusted in his living room for a week, until the lifeless blue eyes unnerved him enough to attempt to turn the thing on. He picked up the manual, frowning at the massive paragraphs and small text and managed to skim to the activation procedure. 

“There's an internal core drive filled with mako that can be activated from a panel on the back. Pull and twist the hatch to access the control panel and insert the code into the keypad. 

You will be prompted to name the unit upon its first start up, as having identities significantly lower the chances of the unit going through psychological deterioration and attacking everything in sight. The N-005 Model has been modeled after the Z-003 model to express other emotions when in distress to further lower the chances of a violent outbursts like the Seraph-00, G-1, A-2, and B-1 units have when in extreme distress . 

The unit will not recognize its name until it is called, much like a child.”

Rufus hesitated after reading the print, looking up to the doll that gazed through him. He wondered if he could just throw it away. With a sigh, he found himself grumbling at all the work he was being forced to do just to get the piece of mind as he fumbled to life the surprisingly heavy SOLDIER and turn him around to open the hatch. He somehow managed to pin himself underneath it, splayed uncomfortably in the loveseat. 

The digital keyboard promoted him to type in a name and he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose at the imminent headache. He leaned back, finding himself gazing out the window. White clouds rolled by high in the sky past Midgar. A rare sight considering the sheer amount of smog and mako in the air but… 

Rufus looked back down at the android. Without a second thought he entered the name into the keypad, because nobody said it had to be a  good name. 

There was a quiet whir, and the Android did a full body twitch before it slowly began to adjust itself and sit on his legs. Glowing eyes turned to him, a deep clear blue that would render any person not accustomed to the sight breathless. 

“Cloud.” He cleared his throat, “Please get off me.”

Instead of obeying the Android merely looked at him with recognition flashing across his features. Slowly, he smiled. A small one, that somehow made him look even more youthful. “I can already tell you're going to be really bad at this.”

“Go!” He snapped, pushing against the androids faux chest. It didn't budge, even going as far to laugh at his attempt. 

“Not until you say ‘pretty please’.” It replied dryly combing his fingers through the blond spikes on its head. “Then maybe I'll think about it.”

He grit his teeth in response, raising his shoulders in challenge. “So be it.”

The android just raised a brow and turned around, leaning forward to grab the TV remote and flipping through the channels. He could only manage a wheeze of protest when it leaned on him with all his weight. 

He was the one who gave up, and he rubbed his wounded pride by stretching his stiff and aching legs. Cloud giggled from the loveseat, earning a glare that only made the android smile back. He retreated to his room looking to relax with a long hot shower and hope that Cloud's behavior would become less intolerable with time and discipline. He was Rufus ShinRa after all. If he couldn't tame one unruly android how could he expected to manage his father's company?

When he walked out, Cloud was in the kitchen wearing an apron - and only an apron - in some twisted parody of one of those cheesy adult movie scenes. “Hungry?” He held out a bowl of… something. It was a light tannish yellow and had chunks of vegetables in it. He grimaced at some of the other unidentifiable chucks the mystery slop.”

“It looks like prison slop.”

“Fitting.” Cloud let out a soft chuckle, and even though it was at his expense he found he didn't mind the sound. “Since my data says you're under house arrest.” 

Rufus sat down with a huff, indignantly accepting the bowl Cloud put down in front of him and sampling a small bite. 

It was… acceptable.

“What is it?” Rufus mulled. 

“Potato soup.” He answered with a shrug. “Oma gave me a lot of recipes when she programmed me.” 

Rufus pocketed the information after another bite. If Cloud was going to feed him more food like this, the whole arrangement was starting to seem like it wasn't so bad. 

He immediately regretted ever thinking that the next morning. He looked blearily up at Cloud who stood behind the counter cooking at 4AM. “Damn you.” He mumbled, and would've said it louder but his lips were too busy trying to go inside his face away from the harsh light of the lamp. 

Blue eyes flicked over to him before the Android turned its attention back to the the fruits on the side. “I could just not cook for you at all.” He began. “Don't be mistaken.” A frown tugged at his full lips. “I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because I enjoy it. Having someone to enjoy it with me and is happy because of my cooking is just a bonus.”

Rufus didn't know how to respond with a sickening, light and warm sensation curling in his chest so he remained silent and quietly mulled over Cloud's words. 

When Cloud laid the plate of food that was an unfamiliar pallette of rice, beans, avocados, and tomatoes on some kind of thick bread he thanked the Android. 

“You're welcome.” Cloud smiled back at him. Rufus ate quietly, convinced he was mistaken when thought he saw a slight reddening of Cloud's cheeks and the incredibly pleased expression.

He quickly became aware of the fact Cloud didn't have any clothes over the course of a month. It also became a distraction as he worked. He found himself staring at his exposed skin for long period of time and watching Cloud do menial tasks such as read textbooks on materia and mako or cooking for the sake of cooking. 

He set out to have something delivered, but when Cloud saw the SOLDIER third class uniform her frowned and promptly stuffed it in the back of his closet. “Cloud, put on the clothes.” 

“No.” He glowered at him, clenching and unclenching his fists.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and studied Cloud. “For the last time. Please. Put. On. Your. Clothes.”

Clouds response was to storm into his guest room and slam the door behind him. Rufus groaned, quickly running over multiple scenarios in his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Tseng,” He managed to keep any hint of exhaustion out of his voice. “Cloud is refusing to wear clothes. What do I do?”

He heard a choking noise and Rufus narrowed his eyes, pondering if the man was dying. “Read the manual.” Was all he said, once he no longer sounded like he was being strangled to death. And he cut the line after what suspiciously sounded like laughter. 

He sighed, walking over to his bookcase and pulling out the massive book and skipping through the table of contents. He found a section titled “Misbehavior” and flipped to that page. 

The unit is particularly vulnerable when they feel lost and unsafe. With frequently changing standards and new urges to conform to social norms that they've only been exposed to for a few months. It may be difficult for humans to understand why it is stressing for androids to process so much information in a short time. As a result anxiety and frustration occurs when the android is forced to do something they've never done before.

While the passage was helpful, he found it eerily similar to a condescending parenting book. He walked over to his computer and typed in a few of the lines and balked. 

It was ripped from a parenting book. 

He rubbed his temples and resolved himself to stand up. “Cloud.” He called from the other side of the door. “Please come out and talk about this like adults.”

The door cracked open and the blond glared at him. “I'm sorry for trying to force you to wear clothes.”

The glare loss some of his intensity but Cloud seemed determined to hang onto his bitterness. “I'm sorry for not handling it better. I should've realized that it was inevitable, since I'll have to start going on missions soon.”

He chuckled, an image of naked SOLDIERS running around in the field killing monsters. “It'd be a great PR stunt.” 

Cloud snorted. “Could you imagine? The general’s fans flip their shit when they see him shirtless. Imagine if they saw him naked. 

The shared a quiet laugh, and if their hands found each other and held on tight, neither of them would acknowledge it.  

Cloud's social skills were quickly developing, though he still barely spoke around others. Which Rufus didn't mind, taking personal satisfaction in knowing that Cloud opened up to him and no one else.

That didn't change until he was finally released from house arrest and he ran into the new model Z-03, based on the dark skinned people of Gongana on the far off continent. Curious blue eyes took in the Android's pale facial features and Cloud indulged his curiosity by twirling around. A-2 watched in amusement with a fond smile regarding the three of them with curiosity. “I think you've had your fun Zack.”

The unit whined, a sound that surprised Cloud and made him watch with more interest. “But Angeal,” The android whined. “He's a newborn.”

Director Deusericus chuckled from behind his desk, glancing over at Rufus who sat to his left. “Some would say Zack still acts like a newborn.” Deusericus whispered to him.

A-2 shook his head, and with a stern voice he lightly chided the younger. “And it's rude to gawk because of that. Don't you remember when you were born and everyone poked at you?”

The android pouted, but relented and turned to Cloud with a smile. “I'm Zack, what's your name?”

“Cloud.” He tilted his head towards A-2. “Why did you say born, commander?”

The older unit winced and shook his head. “It's… some SOLDIERs find it more comforting than ‘built’ and more personal.” He regarded Cloud silently with his dark blue eyes glowing a bit brighter, signaling he was searching through some data. “You haven't spent much time with your fellow SOLDIERs, but you'll find we don't like to be considered emotionless machines.” 

Cloud was silent. He nodded slowly, and quietly whispered. “I don't either.”

Zack smiled, seemingly much more comfortable since the question popped up and wrapped an arm around Cloud and pulled him into a noogie. “You'll fit right in!” 

When Cloud met his gaze during that first mission briefing, Rufus couldn't bare to be selfish enough to be bitter that Cloud was opening up to others when he saw the confidence and personal pride burning in his eyes, so he quietly shoved his jealousy aside and smiled back. 

A faint voice in his head pointed out that Cloud finally looked like a real SOLDIER.

Cloud began sleeping in his room at some point, and woke up incredibly pleased to find Cloud sitting on top of him with a plate of chocolate and strawberries on his chest. “What's the occasion?” He chuckled, taking a strawberry and biting down on it. Cloud swiped up a bit of juice that slid down his chin with his finger and held it out for Rufus to lick. 

“Yule.” He dipped another strawberry in chocolate and fed it to him. “We have the day off.” 

The spitballed many suggestions off of each other, until they settled for curling up on the couch next to each other with a book nestled between them. Rufus found himself paying more attention to the way Cloud's eyes looked when they were half closed, and they way his cheeks were flushed with fascination imaging dragons, dwarves, and hobbits. 

It wasn't surprising when someone attempted to take his life, but he didn't expect it to be during Cloud's promotion ceremony. He was standing stiffly in front of the cameras flashing in his face with his father standing at his side with a wide smile. 

Cloud turned to look back him with smile that was akin to a trapped kidnap victim trying to appease their kidnapper that slowly morphed into horror as he felt a strange small pain in his shoulder. He missed his shoulder and touched his chest instead and his white gloves came away stained red. He looked back up and found Cloud right in front of him, arms around him protectively when there was a high pitched ping and the light in Cloud's eyes flickered. He felt lips press against his collarbone and heard him whisper something that sounded strangely like ‘I love you’ before Cloud slumped over. 

He woke up with an incessant burn. He groaned, coughing out what felt like a toad blinking up at the the ceiling above him. He felt himself being lifted onto something hard. His head lolled to the side and he let out a weak noise at seeing Cloud face down on the ground. 

Before he could say anything, he drifted out of consciousness. 

A grogginess clung to his entire body weighing him down. “Cloud.” He croaked. 

Instead he found Tseng who's hair was down and falling around his shoulders looking down at him. His brown eyes flickered with something before it was smothered and the man began to explain. “You've been asleep for a year now. Your N-005 unit is disembarking tomorrow on a mission to Nibelheim with Seraph-00 and Z-003. Would you like me to send him up?”

“Please.” He nodded, waiting anxiously.

Cloud paused in the doorway, lips partying when he saw Rufus and let out a sigh. Cloud hugged him tightly, causing the soreness and burning to flare up a bit but he endured it. “You're awake.” He whispered. “You're awake.”

He chuckled, finding Cloud's cold skin incredibly soothing. “Did you think a little bullet could keep me down?”

“You got shot in the heart.” Cloud snapped. “You were unconscious for a year.” Moisture welled up in Cloud's eyes. 

He didn't know Cloud could actually cry.

They silently held each other, until Cloud decided to climb onto the bed with him with a book that was left at his bedside on a dressed with a vase of flowers. Rufus drifted off watching Cloud's wet eyes track words across the page, the familiar flush of his cheeks while the old tale of a duo of hobbits journeying through the forest riding a giant tree. Cloud closed the book and kissed him gently, telling him to sleep and that he'd be back soon. 

“You better.” He grumbled. “I'll never forgive you with you if you don't come back.”

Cloud smiled, pushing his sweaty hair off his forehead and wished him “Sweet dreams.”


End file.
